夺鼎中原的历史故事集

【释义】夺：抢夺，鼎：古代煮东西的器物，三足两耳。在上古时期鼎亦是刑具，用于烹人，即释义统治者的生杀大权。中原：黄河中下游一带，指疆域或领土。比喻企图夺取天下。

【用途】用来比喻有私心，想占据所有

夺鼎中原的故事发生在春秋时期，楚庄王带兵北伐，以朝拜的借口向周天子的使者询问九鼎的重量大小，有夺取周王朝天下的形势。

公元前606年，进行北伐的楚庄王以讨伐陆浑之戎为时机，把楚国的大量军队开到了周王朝的首府洛阳的郊外，并在周国的地盘上进行隆重的阅兵仪式，想要让周天子看看楚国的实力，来震慑住周天子。

即位不久的周天子心里当然非常害怕，忐忑不安，担心楚国对周国进行开战。于是，便派善于应对的王孙满出面去安抚楚庄王，讨好楚庄王。楚庄王见了王孙满劈头就问王孙满：“你们的周天子的九鼎有多大，有多重?”这句话言外之意非常清楚，就是要与周天子来比一比自己的权力和力量。King Sun Man face to his question, he said:"The safety of the country is not just depend on the weight of the nine cauldrons, but more importantly it depends on virtue. The size and weight of the cauldrons are not that important." Chu Zhuang Wang saw King Sun Man was trying to dodge his question, so he directly told King Sun Man that Chu could make enough weapons from the swords they had cut down to make nine cauldrons. The implication was that Chu's power was very strong, even if you didn't tell me how much your nine cauldrons weighed, Chu could still make them.

Then King Sun Man said to Chu Zhuang Wang: "Your Majesty should remember that Shun Yu received the support of all rulers because of his virtue and through donations from all over in copper materials he made nine cauldrons as a symbol for everything. But after Shun Yu died, Yi Di became king and then Mo Zhi took over until finally it came into Zhou's hands. If a ruler has virtue no matter how small or light his nine cauldron is it will be hard to move. But if a ruler lacks virtues no matter how big or heavy they are they can easily be moved." So King Sun Man told him,"Zhou's fate has not yet come to an end so do not ask about it."

Chu Zhuang Wang had nothing else to say.